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Well today I decided to remove the spare and take a look at things in that area under the car and wow! I found some rust. The rust I found was on a piece of the frame the supports the spare tire. The rest of the frame on the car is in great shape, but this looks bad. This sucks. Look at the photos below. Can this be fixed or am I screwed? Again this only on the piece that supports the spare tire.
I hope I'm wrong but that looks like there's more to fixing that than a wire brush and some navel jelly. That's where I would start (there must be better stuff than navel jelly now a days).... Good Luck!
I hope I'm wrong but that looks like there's more to fixing that than a wire brush and some navel jelly...
Looks like a couple "Easy-Outs" also..
You had me wondering also what my 85 looked like, so I took a peek under my rear end...
For reference, this is a shot of my 85's:
Hopefully someone with more chassis experience than I on the C4 will chime in. Only thing that catches my eye is it looks like the rear sway bar is mounted off of brackets that attach to that beam......
If you can keep oxygen away from it, it can't rust further.
Although there are many, I've used a product called "POR 15" in the past for chassis and to coat rust repairs. It works pretty good. (They use it for for boilers and stuff)
You can cut it about anything and just gun it on.. Use a wand to get the inside of channels. Any GOOD body shop should have the ability to rust protect channels and closed areas like this, because welding burns corrosion protection away. A good shop is replacing it after the repair. (A bad shop is ignoring it)
Holy F'in dog sheet man; where is that car from and did someone, at some time, try to use it as a boat ?
can some or most of it be unbolted and repaired off the car or replacements bolted in ?
A great product for rust removal is Jasco Metal Prep, available in hardware stores (greenish liquid in a plastic bottle) it will melt away rust, just work it in vigorously with an old paint brush; rinse with high pressure water, repeat, etc, then dry throughly. then use a rust converting primer (naval jelly, POR etc.) which will have the magic ingredient "phosphoric acid" with chemically converts unstable ferrous oxide (rust) to stable hard ferrous phoshate suitable for painting over.
One caveat, Jasco Metal prep, after the rust is dissolved, will continue to attack the steel itself, and granted this takes a LONG time, but I have forgotten metal parts left in Jasco for a couple months, and they were pretty much eaten away....like I said, rinse throughly and dry throughly.
There is a product I have used a bunch but dont remember exactly the name of it. I bought the last bottle from Wally world. Its made by Permatex and its billed as a rust inhibitor. It is milky looking to begin with but as it converts the rust it turns a paintable black hard surface., Anything I treated with it never rusted again. Since it converts the rust you dont need to do a bunch of prep, just knock off the flaky stuff and the inhibitor will do the rest.
If you can keep oxygen away from it, it can't rust further.
Although there are many, I've used a product called "POR 15" in the past for chassis and to coat rust repairs. It works pretty good. (They use it for for boilers and stuff)
You can cut it about anything and just gun it on.. Use a wand to get the inside of channels. Any GOOD body shop should have the ability to rust protect channels and closed areas like this, because welding burns corrosion protection away. A good shop is replacing it after the repair. (A bad shop is ignoring it)
Shouldn't cost much.
Good luck.
Thanks. I'm going to look for this product POR 15. I got to much Cash invested to scrap this. Again it is only in this one area.
Holy crap! That Vette must be from the north. There's some work to do, but nothing that is a write off.
If it were my Vette I would clean that whole area and the prep it with POR 15 or a high quality rust stopper from 3M. I would then paint the area back to black with a good paint to protect it.
I'd replace the fuel tank arresting cables as well as the sway bar brackets. I would clean up the sway bar in the same way
-They'll be a few others that have more experience posting their ideas.
Holy crap! That Vette must be from the north. There's some work to do, but nothing that is a write off.
If it were my Vette I would clean that whole area and the prep it with POR 15 or a high quality rust stopper from 3M. I would then paint the area back to black with a good paint to protect it.
I'd replace the fuel tank arresting cables as well as the sway bar brackets. I would clean up the sway bar in the same way
-They'll be a few others that have more experience posting their ideas.
-Good luck!
Yeah man the car was in New York when I bought it. The cables and sway bar are on the list as well.
Thanks. I'm going to look for this product POR 15. I got to much Cash invested to scrap this. Again it is only in this one area.
Any auto paint supply store will have it and I believe that Eastwood carries it too.
It might be a good idea to post a dupe of your thread (along with the pics) in the Paint/Body sub-forum. There are some very experienced people over there and they might be able to provide some insight on what should be done.
Go to Eastwood and they will have what you need. A 1/2 Quart of Por 15 did the entire underside of my 1973 and they put it on places it wasn't needed. They also have the Encapsulator but be sure the area is rusty enough.......It is Rust Activated and over a good surface will promote rust down the road.